10 Dollops of Wisdom on Reading

Reading in the Dark

1. The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. – Elizabeth Hardwick.

2. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. – Thomas Carlyle.

3. Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him. – Maya Angelou.

4. We read to know that we are not alone. – C.S. Lewis.

5. You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. – Paul Sweeney.

6. Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. – Voltaire.

7. Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window. – William Faulkner.

8. Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. – Jane Smiley.

9. Books are a uniquely portable magic. – Stephen King.

10. I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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Tuck an audiobook into the nooks and crannies of your day.

You know how reading a great book can make you feel like you’ve snuck in a little something extra for yourself in the middle of an otherwise hectic day, hectic week?

Finding the time to sit down with a book on a regular day in this phase of my life isn’t something that often happens, short of vacations.  Can’t read a book while I’m driving, running or grocery shopping.  But I can listen to someone read the book to me.

A while back I discovered audible.com and started downloading books onto my iPhone which I always have with me.  I began listening in the car on the way to pick up my girls from school or on runs, on bike rides, the elliptical, and yes, while grocery shopping.

The first was Kathryn Stockett’s The Help which I started on a drive to Nashville to do some writing and demos.  The story was so riveting, the voices of the characters so real that I kept headphones around my neck for most of the trip just so I could snatch any free minute to sneak in a listen.

After that, I was hooked to the whole audio experience, and pretty soon, I found I was back to devouring books the way I used to be able to, before children, before my life took on its present responsibility level.

And the great thing about it is it feels the same to me.  That story fix.  That wonderful feeling of getting to know characters and not being able to wait to find out what they’re going to do next or what their fate will be.  At first, it was almost like getting away with something.  I’m not supposed to have time to read.  I have too many other things to do.  But actually, I do have time.  Nooks and crannies time – which add up to make me what I’ve always been:  an avid reader.

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Give yourself the gift of reading.

I was one of those kids who went through childhood with my nose stuck in a book as my Grandma Holland used to say.  I never understood why other kids would say they were bored and didn’t have anything to do.  To me, that was an easy fix.  Pick up a book, and you could go just about anywhere in the few moments it took to turn to page one.

I credit my mother for igniting my love for books.  She read to my sister, my brother and me before bed every night, and we actually looked forward to bedtime because of it.

I remember what it felt like to discover the library at Callaway Elementary and the buffet of books available for me to check out:  Beverly Cleary(I loved Ramona and Henry Huggins!) and Laura Ingalls Wilder(Little House on the Prairie and On the Banks of Plum Creek).

Mrs. Milliron, the librarian there, seemed like one of the luckiest people in the world to me simply because she was the guardian of all those wonderful books lining the shelves.  And she loved sharing them.

It’s true that we didn’t have as many choices where entertainment is concerned when I was growing up.  But even with all the choices we have today, in my mind the story can never be replaced.

Reading has its own inherent magic.  And those of us who love it don’t care whether the book itself is a ratty paperback from the library or a Kindle digital version on an Ipad.  It’s the story we’re after, words strung together in such a way that we’re transported to another place, living for a while as other people who are experiencing something we might never have known had we not chosen to open that cover or click on that page.

In a sense, every book is its own little mini-vacation.  A getaway that can take place right in the middle of an ordinary day.  And sometimes, that’s a gift we all deserve.

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